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above: (cropped view) Edwin Binney in his dark, gritty, smoke-filled factory that produced black inks, black dyes, and black pigments for industrial uses, day after day after day…
The Crayon Man -written by Natascha Biebow & illustrated by Steven Salerno -published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019
This is the success story of American inventor Edwin Binney -a manufacturer in the early 1900’s of black inks, black dyes, and black pigments -until the day he was inspired to invent and produce the first smudge-free COLOR crayons made just for kids… which he and his wife named CRAYOLA crayons. The initial box had just 8 colors and cost 5¢. Crayola Crayons went on to become one of the most iconic and popular brands ever.
“Salerno’s illustrations reflect the formality of the era, which he playfully disrupts with splashes of color: in one spread, a line of pigment-spattered workers end a day of crayon experimentation. Readers are likely to be fascinated by the process of “grinding, grinding, grinding up rocks and minerals into fine powders” and the rich colors that result.” -Publishers Weekly
“...The attractive full-page--and, accordingly, brightly colorful--illustrations mix realism and whimsy" - Booklist
-an Amazon “Best of the Month” selection in Children’s non-fiction
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above: cover of The Crayon Man -depicting Edwin Binney and his incredibly popular invention, CRAYOLA crayons for kids…
see Steven’s complete list of published picture books to date
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above: (cropped view) illustration showing Edwin’s back yard -and the colorful world of sea, sky, flowers, and birds that all inspired him to develop the first color crayons just for kids.
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above: (cropped view) illustration showing Edwin struck by the idea of creating color crayons for kids… inspired by his love of colorful flowers and everything else in his colorful world. This would totally change the direction of his factory =which up until then was only producing black inks, black dyes, black pigments, etc…
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above: (cropped view) illustration of Edwin listening to and contemplating the various suggestions from his family and friends…
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above: (cropped view) illustration depicting Edwin’s factory at the start of the testing… which involved grinding various rocks and minerals for their specific colors to create the pigments used in the experimental prototype color crayons.
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above: (cropped view) For many months Edwin’s workers went home each day covered in splotches and splashes of color. In this scene we see some of the workers in a line heading out the door at 5pm… Wondering what that odd looking metal thing is the man on the right side is carrying? That’s what a lunch pail looked like in 1903!
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above: one of the intermediate stage sketches where placement of the text has been determined too… depicting a scene in 1903 when the very first production of Crayola Crayons are packed and delivered by horse and wagon… The box of 8 colors cost just 5¢. The coin seen in the upper left is what a nickel looked like back in 1903!
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above: vignette that appears on the back cover -of Edwin standing in his flower garden, which was one of the inspirations for creating Crayola Crayons…